RUSSIA: Ukrainian children deported to Russia listed on adoption websites

Euromaidan (13.06.2024) – In March last year, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on war crimes charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.

An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that images and personal details of Ukrainian children, who were deported to Russia during the early months of the 2022 invasion, are appearing on adoption websites linked to the Russian government.

Using image recognition tools, public records, and interviews with Ukrainian officials and the children’s relatives, the newspaper identified four Ukrainian children on usynovite.ru.

One child is listed under a new Russian name and a different age from their Ukrainian documents, while another was listed under a Russian version of their Ukrainian name. There is no mention of their Ukrainian background.

These children were taken from state care homes in towns across southern and eastern Ukraine, which came under Russian control in 2022. Ages of the children range from eight to 15 years old.

Tracked by the FT, these children have ended up in regions near Moscow, such as Tula, and close to the Kazakh border in Orenburg. One child was taken to occupied Crimea.

Seventeen more matches found by the FT on the adoption website were confirmed as Ukrainian children in a recent New York Times investigation, all of them from a Kherson children’s home.

The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment on these findings.

According to Ukrainian authorities, nearly 20,000 children have been forcibly taken to Russia from occupied territories since 2022 and only 389 returned back home.

Read more:

Some of HRWF Publications

HRWF Reports in English, Russian, Ukrainian

15 December 2023

RUSSIA/ UKRAINE: Ukrainian children un search of a way home from Russia/ HRWF Report submitted to the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (15 December 2023)

Versions in Russian and in Ukrainian: HERE

– See UN Website: bit.ly/3Rz46iu

23 March 2023

Ордер МУС на арест Владимира Путина и Марии Львовой-Беловой за военные преступления RU/EN (23.03.2023) / ICC arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for war crimes (23.03.2023)

27 February 2023
РОССИЯ-матушка: Мария Львова-Белова, союзница Путина, депортирующая украинских детей RU/ EN (27.02.2023)
 /RUSSIA: Mother Russia: Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s ally deporting Ukrainian children (27.02.2023)

20 February 2023

РОССИЯ вывезла тысячи украинских детей RU/ EN (20.02.2023)/  RUSSIA deports thousands of Ukrainian children (20.02.2023)